-The Telegraph Experiments by Saurashtra University represent a 'classic example' of a study designed to reach a predetermined conclusion A group of Indian Scientists has decried a Union government agency’s invocation of experiments by physicists at Gujarat’s Saurashtra University to claim cow dung can shield people from radiation. The experiments purportedly showed that cow-dung cakes partially blocked radiation from radioactive caesium. The Rashtriya Kamadhenu Aayog, a unit under the Union fisheries, animal husbandry...

-Down to Earth Forced maturity in plants due to higher temperatures can result in smaller seeds A comparatively 'warm' winter in Bihar this year could harm production of rabi crops like wheat, oil seed and pulses, agricultural Scientists have predicted. According to experts, production of winter crops may be hit by at least 30-40 per cent if the weather in the eastern state is unchanged for long. The minimum temperature should be 10-12 degrees...

-The Indian Express The latest National Family Health Survey data shows that in several parts of India, children born between 2014 and 2019 are more malnourished than the previous generation Dear Readers, Consider some of the biggest challenges facing the world — armed conflict, chronic disease, education, infectious disease, population growth, biodiversity, climate change, hunger & malnutrition, natural disasters, water and sanitation. What would be your response if you were given billions of dollars...

-The Indian Express Farmers’ genuine concerns must be addressed as soon as possible so that they can continue producing food and fibre needed for the ever-increasing population. In the early 1960s, near-famine conditions prevailed in India and some 10 million tonnes of wheat had to be imported from the US under the PL480 programme. The country’s situation was pejoratively dubbed “ship-to-mouth” existence, as foodgrains arriving via ships were immediately consumed. In 1963, Norman...

-The Hindu The events of the pandemic show how it is the need of the hour to modernise India’s archaic tax laws The word ‘lockdown’, which is Collins Dictionary’s word of the year, sums up the pain that the world underwent in 2020. As a result of the pandemic-induced lockdown, India’s GDP contracted consecutively for two quarters from April to September 2020. Some have gained from the pandemic. India’s super rich only became...